


Day by Day, I'm Growing Up

by 13ineedpills13



Series: Atlas' Adventures [2]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Humor, Puberty, Sexuality Crisis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23698798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13ineedpills13/pseuds/13ineedpills13
Summary: A sequel to my previous fic, A Child, Down In The Devildom. Basically, it's been 8 years ever since the events of the previous fic happened, and Atlas is now a 14-15 year old teenager that is a freshman in high school. With time, he will began questioning everything in his life.I quite enjoy writing these oc's i made. Keep in mind that the story will go on from mostly Atlas' POV and there will probably some mentions to bullying and sexuality confusion-crisis.--
Series: Atlas' Adventures [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706701
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

< Years Later >

A boy, roughly 15 years old, slumped his bag over his shoulder, plugged in his earphones and went out of his classroom the moment the bell rang. He didn't want to stay for his math course that day, since the midterms were already over and it was friday. Who wants to stay and listen to an old teacher, giving a lecture about algebra in a tiny classroom during a friday? 

He walked out of the building and opened his tiny umbrella. It was raining a little, and he didn't want to get wet. Holding his phone with one hand, he picked out one of his favorite soundtracks from a random game he played with one of his uncles and adjusted his glasses. Quietly humming along the song, he began walking. 

He got to the main street and turned right. The crosswalk he was supposed to walk to was roughly 250 steps away. With fast steps, he walked close to the end of the sidewalk as much as possible to avoid bumping into people. This metropol had 16,000,000 people in it.

"We need a new plague, there are too much people." The boy thought and tucked his phone in his pocket. Then ran a hand over his newly forming beard. He hated it, so he was going to get rid of it the moment he stepped inside his dorm. He mouthed the words of the new song he was listening to, it was one of his favorites. Luckily, the umbrella covered most of his face, so no one saw him. 

He stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the traffic lamps to change into green. He could feel a small burning sensation in his ankles, he walked a bit too fast. He glanced over at other people for a minute to check what they were doing. A man with horribly deformed feet and back was selling band-aids to other people to buy himself food. A homeless man with ripped up jeans was sitting on a folded box with a cup in front of him, waiting for people to give money. He knew all of these people, he saw them everyday. This city was the most advanced ones in his country, but extra NPC's and conditions came as a extras for it's price. You could hang out with a sexy model on the 50th floor of a huge skyscraper, drink in hand, or you could get stabbed in back alley because you walked in the wrong place at the wrong time. A wonderful cyberpunk dystopia.

This also applied for all the other beggars and homeless people around, train stations for example. That's said, he could take the train, but he had to take another bus to go back to his dorm building. And that bus would get super crowded by the time he came to his stop. Those crowded busses were truly something else... You could become relatives with a random person in there if it was crowded enough. He smirked under his umbrella wondered how the woman with deformed feet and hands (he saw her everyday, at the other side of the road when he was got out of school) was doing. She would always walk around- no, crawl around like a baby and beg for money, blocking everyone's path. Or the man he saw every morning without an arm. He was the same, but at least he wasn't 200 pounds and covered up the whole road.

Seriously, how many beggars were in Halaskargazi? His face dropped. These people were just a burden to society. But he wasn't going to be like them. He had an ambition... It was rare for him to set any goals for himself, since he always ended up dissapointed in himself afterwards. But he knew he had the potential to be a health-care worker, or a decently paid civil servant. He was going to become one and stare down at all these people. Yeah, to come to the position to feel superior was his actual goal. Just like a certain person he knew...

He started to move too when he noticed the other people were walking to the other side of the road. He turned right, once again, and began walking to the bus stop. He was tapping his hands to the metal holder of his umbrella and turned his attention to the very luxury car pulling up next to him.

"...Uncle Mammon?"

"Ssssh, don't use that name in here kid! Come on, hop on. We're gonna see your brother!"

"I'm not seeing that demon."

"Half-demon, technically."

"Okay, my dearest uncle. But my answer is still a big fat no."

"Your dad won't be happy if I tell him ya said that." Mammon smirked. It was one of the rare times he could blackmail someone, so he wanted to enjoy every second of it. Seeing that shit eating grin on Mammon's face, Atlas sighed and closed his umbrella. "For one, he is not my father. For two, my mom chose that thing over me. I don't want to see neither of them."

"Don't say that. You have no idea how much she misses you... Come on, get in. I ain't got all day."

"How do you even afford this car when you can't even pay your debts back to the witches you're bound to?" He made his way around the car and sat down next to Mammon. 

"That's a Mammon Secret!" Mammon said and closed his window so the rain wouldn't get inside. "Buckle your seatbelt." Atlas took off his bag and placed it over by his feet, then buckled his seatbelt. "I get to choose the music."

"No, this is my car."

"I can always scream "This man is kidnapping me!" you know."

Mammon's face went white and gritted teeth in frustration. "Fine, do whatever you want. Don't touch anythin' else tho."

"I don't plan to." Atlas said and leaned forward a little as Mammon rode the car towards god knows where. All Atlas knew was that they were going to Devildom and he forgot where the portal leading to it was.

"Is Lucifer here?"

"Yep. He's waitin' for us at the portal."

"Of course... He HAS to be here. Wonderful." Atlas leaned back when he finally picked the music. "I didn't know you had classical pieces in here." 

"Oh, Satan downloaded that after he listened to it once. He liked "the mix of middle eastern instruments and western style" or somethin'... He's a really weird guy. I mean, a song is a song, it doesn't have to be this deep.

"Well, I learned about this piece when our music teacher played it in class and I like it, it's chaotic. Not as chaotic as the music in Devildom tho..."

"Heh, you were horrified when we went to the concert with you the first time." Mammon grinned at the memory.

"I had trouble hearing for 2 days after that. I wasn't just horrified." Atlas smiled and looked outside the window. Their short conversation ended there, as the soft, yet playful tunes of the piece played in the car. 

\---

"Welp, we're here now." Mammon said as he pulled over at a shady back alley and stopped the car.

"What are you gonna do with the car? It can't fit through the portal."

"It can, actually." Mammon said. "You can go first."

"...I'm not even going to question how." Atlas rolled his eyes and took his bag and umbrella with him. It was still raining, but it didn't reached here too much. He got out of the car and closed the door behind him, then looked at Lucifer, who was leaning agganist the wall, looking at them. 

In the past 8 years, their relationship stayed neautral. They had a awkward step father-angry step son relationship between them and Atlas never called him as his father once, ever since his mother married with him. After his brother was born, the two married to each other with normal and plain wedding. Nothing extravagant. Atlas sat down in the back row, next to Barbatos the entire time. Asmodeus made him wear an expensive, black and red suit with immense amount of force, and he actually styled his hair.

Atlas hated everything that night. He hated the wedding venue, he hated the wedding officer* and his red robe, he hated the food, he hated the staff, he hated how happy Lucifer was, he hated how FUCKING DIAVOLO was there too, and he even hated the poor staff working there. 

So he turned to the most normal person in there, Barbatos, for comfort since Luke was too busy flattering his mother and Simeon was having a serious conversation with Lucifer at that moment. The demon brothers were out of question too, since Leviathan was too just meddling with his phone, Mammon was throwing a small jealousy fit, Beel... he was too focused on the food. Belphegor was trying to get wasted at the other side of the room before the main ceremony even started, Satan was fixing his suit every 2 seconds, and Asmodeus was trying to give Solomon a booty call from the other side of the roo. Solomon was sitting on one of the seats while he looked around the venue with an expressionless face, but he seemed sketchy all the time. So he's out of the question too.

"...Barbatos."

"Yes?"

"I hate everything."

"...That came out of the blue, why?"

"I want to punch Lucifer."

"You can always try, but you'll end up with a broken spine."

"Can't I complain for a second?" He huffed and crossed his arms. "So... Are we staying here?"

"Once everything settles down, you will be given a citizenship in here. So you can come here at anytime. But for the sake of your education, you will go back to the human world and study in a school with dormitory services until you graduate from highschool."

"...I'm seven years old."

"Oh... I'm sorry. I forget that sometimes." Barbatos crouched down to his side. "Your mother will stay here since she agreed to raise your brother in here, but you will go back to your home. You'll stay in an another place until you're 18 years old and go to school at the same time... Until then, you can visit here at anytime during your breaks."

"Essantially, the dorm will raise me instead of my mom."

"I'm afraid that is the case." Barbatos could see how anxious and... lonely he was. "Your home is far too risky for your brother, and you can't go to school in here. This is the only option."

"It won't be much different than my normal life. My mom was always busy. So she wouldn't be home that much... I won't miss her too much. And I also hate my brother..."

Barbatos smiled quietly. "Do you even know what his name is?" Atlas shook his head, embarrassed.

"Lucifer wanted me to ask you what to name him.

"Me?"

Barbatos nodded.

"I don't know... Probably something heavens related. Just to piss Lucifer off."

"Be serious about it please. His name might decide his fate." Barbatos frowned.

"Ooff... You're annoying." Atlas said and put his chin on his knees. "Can it be in any language?"

"Of course."

"I have two. They can pick the one they like." Barbatos took out a small notbook and a pen, then gave it to him. Atlas wrote the names in his mind and gave it back to him.

Barbatos raised his brows for a second before putting the notebook back in his pocket.

"My mom will know which one to choose." Atlas simply shugged and went back to staring Lucifer like he wanted to murder him. Barbatos smiled to him and got up. He fixed his clothes and went back to watching the ceremony.

Atlas wasn't proud of the names he wrote on that piece of paper even now, that's for sure.

He literally wrote. "Münker" and "Nekir" in there. The two angels, responsible for questioning the dead person's soul once their body is under the cold and hard soil. They asked 3 simple questions; "What is your religion?", "Who is your god?" And "What do you think of your prophet?".

Couldn't he get more creative than that?

He COULD'VE wrote Azazil or Samael in there.  
HE COULD'VE. And the look on Lucifer's face when he read that would be PRICELESS.  
But he didn't.  
HE FUCKING DIDN'T.  
He missed his CHANCE. 

Lucifer opened the portal and Atlas entered there without saying anything to him. He put his hands in his pocket and began walking in the dark and dry soil of Devildom.

\---- 

"**Atlas! Atlas! Look, I got an A on my test today!**"

"**...Cool.**"

"**That's all you're gonna say!? I worked hard for it yanno!**" 

His mother and the rest of his uncles greeted him as he entered the house and took of his raincoat, then hanged it on the clothing hanger next to the door. His mother hugged him tightly and kissed the top of his head, saying how much he's grown. Atlas rolled his eyes at that, but he knew his mother was right. He knew he got quite tall (he was around the same height as Mammon now, and though Mammon was the shortest among his brothers, he wasn't that short). He also started to form a small beard, and his hands were bigger. His body was thin, but that didn't mean he wasn't getting stronger. His hair was shorter, but it was still fluffy and wavy. And of course, that depressed edgy face everyone made at least once in their life was also plastered all over his face.

In short, the ingredients to a perfect teenager edgelord soup was completed.

They just saw him last summer when everyone went to the human world for a vacation and of course, they took Atlas and his brother along with them. Atlas sat down next to Satan the entire time under the umbrella, not wanting to get any sunburns or get wet. 

They chatted, ate, made jokes and eventually, it was time for him to talk with an annoying kid that was a piece of Lucifer's jizz approximately 8 years ago. He hated this kid with every fiber of his being.

First of all, he looked exactly like Lucifer. Same eyes, same hair, same temper, same everything. The only difference was that his hair was a little curly, like his mother's and he had the same sense of humour, plus cheerfullnes as her.

However, Atlas and him were the exact opposite of each other. Atlas loved eating raspberry chocolates, while his brother hated them. Atlas had always been a philosophical child, where as this kid didn't even made the slightest effort to question a n y t h i n g. Atlas could keep his cool for a very long time before exploding and completely blacking out, where as his brother couldn't keep his cool for 5 minutes but couldn't damage anything in the slightest.

...  
Wait, his brother was completely normal. Atlas was a weird one.

Anyway, he hated him.

"Good job. Happy?" Atlas scoffed and pushed him aside. "**Getting an A on math and Devildom Language is the easiest thing you could do. Focus on history more. You're doing bad at that.**"

"**You're so mean...**" He mumbled and looked down.

"**Welcome to the real world.**" Atlas said and turned his back at him. He took out his phone and began texting to a couple of his friends (a.k.a a couple younger demons that tried to beat him before but they cool now) to see if they wanted to hang out. He didn't get an immediate response, so he ended up scrolling through Devilgram and basically the Devildom version of Twitter, under one of the fake accounts he made when he was bored.

Satan's pics in his devil form, Lucifer's smug ass, a picture of Beel's abs, Asmo ranting about his man cheating on him, Belphegor roasting people online (he loved scrolling through Belphegor's twitter account for that reason)... Basically same stuff as usual. He put his phone down and streched, relaxing his sore shoulders. He looked around when he felt the silence in the room and felt a little sad. Nekir (his brother, but Atlas still called him Azazil-Samael as a joke, and to piss Lucifer off) was nowhere to be found.

Then he remembered.   
Today was his 8th birthday.  
So he must be downstairs.

Atlas huffed in frustration. How could he forget about it? Mammon, pulling up to him at a weekday when he was going back to his home and telling him they're going to see his brother, should've been enough for a hint! He didn't cared about his birthday at all, that was the reason why he forgot it in the first place. But if he didn't hurried enough, his mother might beat his ass with her sandals. 

He quickly rose up, fixed his school uniform (A short sleeved shirt with navy blue stripes on the collars and 3 buttons on the chest, his school's logo right on where his heart is, and a pair of black jeans. The jeans weren't a part of the school uniform, but no one in Atlas's school cared about the dress code anyway.) as much as he could, checked his hair out, and went downstairs. He didn't have a present for him, and he wasn't going to seem cheap in front of everyone. He was too prideful for that. So, he pulled out his favorite and rather expensive pen and his brand-new eraser from his pencil case, knowing he would actually use it.

He knew a few things about him, but they were obvious things. His brother always sketched and coloured on every single blank sheet he could find, so he must've liked drawing (no shit). He loved watching Power Rangers and Peppa Pig, Atlas didn't know 8 year olds would even watch Peppa Pig. Azazil is going to have a British accent at this rate... and the only other thing he knew about his intrests was that he loved frogs. He let in 4 of them in his room one day, and Mammon screamed when he saw one of them in his room, chilling on his bed.

He kinda felt bad when he realized he knew almost nothing about him. He put the pen and the brand new eraser inside a pretty small box and attached a ribbon he found in the room to it, taking it downstairs with him. Whistling to himself, he though about what others bought for him. He couldn't help but feel a bit jealous though, he never got a proper birthday party. It was understandable, other than his mother, he had no blood ties to anyone in here. So of course his birthdays wouldn't be a huge deal as much as his brother's.

Thankfully, he was born on a national holiday in Turkey, so he could spend time with others. Though as the years went on, his presents usually turned into handfulls money he put in the bank. He had around 1,575 TL in the bank already. Which is a huge deal, considering he is only a 15 year old and the economy is equivalent to a shit of a horse with diarrhea right now. His mother really hit the jackpot with Lucifer.

"...Where's everyone?" He said quizzically, looking at the puppy Lucifer brought in after much begging from his bElovEd sOn. He never agreed to take Mısır in, and now Atlas was taking care of it back at his dorm! Well, at least the cat was doing okay now, and Atlas didn't feel lonely.

But seriously, where is everyone? 

He continued looking through at every room in the house, one by one, and finally decided to call his mother. No answer came though, only the sounds of beeping could be heard and soon, the line cut short. Atlas put the phone in his pocket and wandered the house a bit more before putting the dog on a leash and heading to the castle. Getting inside was going to be challenging for him, since no one really acknowledged Diavolo's right hand man's stepson. "Of course they wouldn't. Even my own mom forgets about me sometimes." Atlas thought and snorted to himself. "Why else would they send me away? I know they had their own reasons and stuff but the way they act is just so shitty..."

Well, he at least had the puppy with him now.   
Atlas hated (more like was scared of) dogs, the big ones. But he didn't mind puppies. Actually, he was quite fond of this tiny creature. He took the dog in his arms and kissed the top of it's head, smiling a little. "Who's a good boy, Charles?" The dog barked back at him happily, making the bell on his collar tingle.

"Want to hang out with me instead of that old scruffy man and his wife?" Atlas smiled when the dog barked again, and let him go. He went to the local coffee shop, ordered a got a regular coffee with lots of milk in it and chocolate, paid for it and sat by a seat close to the cafe, pulling the dog on his lap.

As much as he hated going outside, sitting in silence with no one to talk to in a crowded place had the same effect as therapy to him. He loved watching these foolish, night-loving creatures roam around and go about their days without a care in the world. Each of them had a different story, each of them did something different on a daily basis. He put his coffee on the table, opened the wrapper of the milk chocolate in his hands, and out one piece of it inside his mouth, than drank the coffee. The coffee melted the chocolate inside his mouth, and honestly, it tasted so nice whenever he did that. He cringed when he remembered th3 last Valentines day, when Beel got tons of chocolate from the other girls. One of the reasons why he got mad at Beel whenever he chewed into a piece of chocolate like a fucking animal, is because his teeth was so sensitive, and he got goosebumps at the thought of chewing the chocolate in the same way as Beel. He pushed his hair out of the way, then started to pet his dog as he looked at his phone a little further. There was a missing call from Lucifer.

"Huh... Should I call him back, Charles?" He asked to his dog, and smiled when the dog made a sleepy sound. He clicked on Lucifer's icon and called him. The phone beeped for a while until Lucifer picked his phone up.

"Hello."

"Alo." He says out of habit. "Why did you call me?"

"We left to get some food at Ristorante Six, come over there right now."

"How did you even forget to tell me that but got your kid?" Atlas asked and rolled his eyes. "Tell me that first and I'll be on my way."

"I told your brother to tell you to go downstairs, but you didn't. He told us you weren't feeling well, so I called you in case... But I can see you're sitting at the cafe from the window over here. Did he not tell you?"

"That little shit..." Atlas thought and frowned. "He didn't."

A small chuckle could be heard from the other side of the line. "Looks like he pulled the stealth move... It's your fault for not noticing sooner. Come on. The dinner won't be complete without yo-"

Atlas turned off the phone to Lucifer's face and got up with the dog in his arms, staring at the Ristorante Six's window. He could see the outline of Diavolo's face and Lucifer's hair from here, but that was about it. He had to fight off every urge in his body to not lift his hand up and show Lucifer his middle finger 

"...Animals are not allowed at Restaurant Ass or whatever, so I'm going to have to leave you at the receptionist's desk." The dog whined and snuggled to him, Atlas made a painful expression. "...Sorry, little guy... Believe me. I want to spend the rest of the evening with you but it's The Devil's son's birthday, and I have to attend. But Lucifer would beat my ass if I didn't... It would've been at least a bit cooler if there was a satanic ritual for that shit but they can go off I guess."

He ate the rest of his chocolate, drank the coffee in one huge gulp, and threw his trash inside the bin next to him. Then made his way to the Ristorante Six.

\----


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can explain-  
> I wrote this and than got distracted with other works ok?  
> Ok  
> Have a sad chapter, here. Take it. You deserve it.

"Happy birthday to you..." 

The voices of brothers echoed in the restaurant, as the child sat there with a huge smile over his face. 

His red eyes, sparkling in joy, inspected everyone in the room carefully. The staff member carried his favorite cake in his hands, a wet chocolate cake with sweet banana frosting inside. There were colourful candles on the damn thing, they all sparked lile fireworks and spread colourful flames around. Aside from the cake, there was a big feast on the table.

The morningstar's cute son deserved to be spoiled after all. Everything had to be perfect for him.

"...You guys never celebrated my birthday like this." Atlas wanted to say all of a sudden, but kept his mouth shut when he saw how happy everyone was. There was a weird ache in his stomach as he looked at the warm expression in their eyes, full of love, interest. It was their cute nephew after all, the joy of their lives. Meanwhile, he grew up with teachers and the dorm staff as his mothers and fathers. Except everyone stayed away from him like he had the plague. Atlas felt neglected. He crossed his arms as he watched his younger brother doing his thing, blowing the candles after the birthday song ended and getting an applause. 

Envy.  
That was what he felt whenever he thought of Nekir.  
That child had stolen his own life away from him. The life that Atlas could've lived. By being born, Nekir stole everything from him. All he wanted was his own father, and his mother to be together. All he wanted was a happy family in which he was the center of attention, and love. But he was always in the second plan, as if he wasn't meant to be around his own mother anymore. Turna loved Lucifer. And had a kid with him as a result. Even if it was an accident. And ever since that day, Atlas was all alone.

He was lonely enough already, he lived off of the money his mother would leave for lunch, before the whole Devildom thing, and eat nothing else until his mother brought dinner from outside in the evening. He would go to school on weekdays and talk to his teachers, maybe his classmates. The teacher-parent conferences were always filled with praises for him, and Turna would sometimes bring him to an arcade as a reward. If Atlas didn't want to go to the arcade, they would go to a bowling game. And then eat some sweets afterwards. 

Those days were his favorite, as bis mother's attention would always he on him. He would laugh, skip around in excitement, yell loudly when he saw a cute cat, and stick his face on the bus window in amazement, if he saw something that interested him outside. But most importantly, he would feel the warmth of his mother's hand on his hair, and the softness of his chest on his cheek when he leaned to her as they watched the television in that evening. 

But his brother stole everything from him. After their marrige, Atlas hoped that he would be paid attention by his mother like in a normal mother-son relationship, as she wasn't as busy anymore. But it didn't happen. Everything was either about Nekir, or Lucifer. Or RAD, since she taught Human Literature there. The brothers were busy with their own lives and they mostly helped with the babysitting, but they never did anything for his older brother. Because Atlas was mostly gone, not by choice.

It was...  
So unfair.  
So disgusting.

"Aren't you going to say something as well, Atlas?" His mother questioned with her usual warm smile. Atlas didn't notice that he had spaced out while he stared at the wide selection of foods and sweets on the table.

Atlas looked at his brother for a short second before saying "Congrats" and turning away. He was never good at saying what he wanted anyway. So expecting his mother to actually understand him and be there for him was an unrealistically high standart, he was born because his parents thought that a child would save their marrige. But once they figured out that he was useless, he became a burden.

Atlas looked at his half-brother's face closely once everyone's attention was away from him. He felt Lucifer's stare to him for a few seconds, before the first born turned away. His little brother was excited about the cake of course, it made his heart wrench in pain instead of jealousy this time. It wasn't like he didn't want a good relationship with him. At the end of the day, they were connected by blood.

It was just that something deep inside him, his innocent child self, longed for the love he was destined to never get. And his child self believed that it was Lucifer's fault for being his half brother's father, and his brothers' for being uncles.  
The celebrations went on and on. And Atlas did nothing but sit down in silence and space out. No one paid any attention to him once again. He was invisible in this realm, just like in the earth.

He put the expensive pen and the high quality eraser in his brother's bag in secret afterwards. He also found a a brand new sketchbook with textured, thick paper in his closet when he was getting ready to change his clothes. So he wrapped that as well, and put it in the bag while his brother was sleeping.

\---

Atlas relaxed and melted into a puddle in the couch of the common area, and sighed softly. It was around 8 PM at this point. His legs and arms felt like jelly from all that walking around they did afterwards, going to feasts and spoiling the brat as much as possible. Rain was pouring outside violently and hitting the window with loud taps. The lights were closed and the fireplace was out, leaving the room very cold. But he needed some time alone after spending an entire day with the most emotionally draining people in his life.

He slowy descended into a sea of memories. Memories of what he ate, the cats he pat, the soothing smell of his cat and the times he sneezed because of it. The cold covers of his dorm bed, in the room he had to himself entirely. Money does amazing things sometimes. 8 years ago, he would've never imagined that his life would end up like this.

He didn't like it at all.  
Leaving a social creature completely alone is the worst kind of torture. As their thoughts haunt them worse than actual physical pain. That's why Atlas trusted people way too easily. He lacked any sort of social skill to understand that people may harm him in ways that he could never think of.

Memories of his first kiss suddenly came into his mind, and he opened his eyes at the thought of it. He didn't want to remember _him_ out of everyone. The kiss wasn't anything exceptional. They just touched lips together and smiled at each other with embarassment, and hugged each other.

He convinced himself that he was nust experimenting to himself, that he was just fooling around and he wasn't serious. But... But he was actually getting scared now. Ever since they went to a secluded corner of the very small library and sat under the windows together, ever since they did that and touched their lips together for just a few seconds, his head was spinning around even more. He had grown restless. The reflection in the mirror looked at him in disgust, called him slurs, laughed at him. Told him that he was just in a phase and he was being delusional. 

He was weird, wasn't he?  
If HE looked at a person in the same gender as him, there was definetly something wrong with him. Other people could do what they wanted and what felt right to them, and he had endless respect for them. He was an ally.   
But him?  
Liking another guy?  
No, no, no. Surely, he must be confused. He thought like that because he was supporting these people, but he wasn't _them_. He was a heterosexual guy. Right? He liked the opposite gender. His childhood crush was a girl. He never thought about other people like that when he was a child. So surely, he must be faking it for attention. Surely, he thought that it would make him a more interesting person. He was a disgusting person for this, he deserved no happiness. 

Surely...

His head ached from thinking about it, so he just laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. Getting into a loose ball, he yawned quietly.

Why was the couch so warm, while the rest of the room was so cold?

All of a sudden, he heard footsteps and froze in his seat. Who could it be? Was it the brat? One of the brothers, perhaps? Or his mother?

He felt a slight shift next to him and felt a warm hand on his head, stroking his hair slowly. He felt somehing soft being dropped on him, and instantly felt warm. It wasn't a blanket, the material was firmer, and it smelled faintly of perfume. He felt the same hand stroking his hair a while longer, and relaxed. Out of curiosity, he opened his eyes and stared at the welcomed intruder.

And he was met with two pairs of crimson red eyes behind a pair of reading glasses.

"Did I wake you?" He questioned, and Atlas's tired eyes blinked slowly.

"...was 'bouta sleep..." He muttered out in an annoyed tone, but snuggled to the warmth of the long coat more. The perfume was so familiar. Even though he never hugged Lucifer or anything, for some reason, the smell was extremely familiar. It soothed him, made him feel warm inside. His almost fully closed eyes peeked at the demon's face for a while.

"Sorry, I didn't have a blanket."

"No problem. I'm... kinda awake now anyway." Atlas rose up on the couch and sat up, leaning agganist the armrest. He stared at Lucifer for a while in silence, his eyes dripping with sleep. He then turned them to the window outside. 

There was nothing in particular there. The window itself was clouded, and it dripped with the raindrops on it. So you couldn't really see anything. A slight blue light was oozing out from the outside, but other than that, there was no source of light in the room. Lucifer got up and left to somewhere, Atlas could see the outline of Lucifer's silhouette close to the fireplace. A couple minutes of crackling and something being moved around, a small fire erupted from the fireplace and it quickly spread on the fireplace. Lucifer blowed on it a little, and then got up once he was satisfied.

"It's cold in here. It's best for you go go back to your room but you hate it there. Right?" Lucifer turned to the human child and he nodded in reply, not saying anything. 

\---

Lucifer knew what fatherhood felt like, to some extent. He had his own child now, and could never replace the memories he had with his first born son with anything else. He was ready to sacrifice everything he had to save his child, and protect this family. But Atlas never fit in their small family.  
Not because they didn't want him. Turna always talked about how proud she was of his son. And deeply regretted that she couldn't be there for him throught his life. She would sigh after every single phone call in an emotionally drained state, though most of those calls would be unanswered. On these days, Turna would still try to stay positive and assume that he is busy. But Lucifer could see the sadness in her eyes.

"...Lucifer, where did I go wrong with him?"

"...He is jealous of his brother." 

"Given the circumstances, he just can't live in Devildom and I can't leave here. I have Nekir, I have my job... I have you. But if he comes here, he'll get..." Turna closed her eyes and frowned in disgust, her eyelashes sparkly-wet with tears. She swallowed and buried her head on her husband's chest quietly, as they laid on the bed together. 

Turna was an irresponsible woman.   
She gave her heart to the wrong person without thinking too much on it, got married, and the the cycle of abuse and depression began. 

When she got married with her ex-husband, she thought that he was the cutest and sweetest person ever. However, as time passed, she realized that the married life between them wasn't what she expected at all. He worked at the military, and came home late on most nights. He didn't contributed to the household at all, so she had to worl and gain her own money to pay the bills, the rent, clothing, and food. He was an irresponsible, angry man outside of his job. They fought together a lot, and were at each others' necks most of the time.

They decided to have a third person in their lives, after one night when he drank a bit too much and threw a rakı bottle at the poor woman. Her lip was busted, and there was a huge bruise on her right eye and forehead. The bottle that shattered on her face. She was too shocked to even say anything, to get up and fight back, to say something. But she didn't have the strength to do so. Her husband was her entire life at this point. He had bought the house, and had no reason to keep her there if he got angry. 

He could file divorce papers if he wanted to, and kick her out. And then, she would be completely homeless. With no one to hold onto. She had a job, but the salary of a teacher barely covered anything. She couldn't afford to be homeless, her family had already rejected her. She had no friends. No one. So her only option was to do anything her husband had said. She couldn't talk to anyone about it. She didn't want her pride to be wounded more. A woman that has finished university, managed to find a job as a teacher with a stable income, and is seemingly happily married, being beaten by her husband every night? No, she couldn't bear the thought of these words going out. 

And so, she sat there for the entire night without shedding a single tear. She didn't look at him, or put his head up until he left the house, with the sound of the door clinking afterwards. She asked if he wanted kid later on, and he said yes, quite happily. He always wanted a cute daughter to play games with. But Turna looked at this quite differently. She thought, if she had a kid with him, he wouldn't be able to kick her out that easily. He would have a child to deal with, and she could get child support from him in case something went wrong.

She felt so much regret for these thoughts after the baby was born. She gave birth to a boy instead of a girl. Which wasn't a huge problem for her, but it was really disappointing for her husband. She got a lot of insults for it, and never understood why. In her naive mind, men would want sons instead of daughters most of the time, right? So why was he complaining? It was later on that she learned why he wanted a daughter instead of a son. He wanted someone he could control the life of.

Everytime she looked at her son's almond eyes, she felt really weird.  
This child was both the most avarage child she could ever see. However, with age, he began acting really weird.  
He learned how to talk and write very easily and early. He could speak clearly with a weirdly advanced vocabulary, had an understanding of abstract things at a very young age, commented on literaly anything and mostly interacted with adults.   
However, on some days, as if a switch had been pulled, he would act like a regular child. Those days were the easiest to deal with.

Turna never made him attend to a terapist, she had been told to bring him to somewhere for good mesure. She first thought he was just mimicking his father, but she knew for sure that he wasn't mimicking anyone after she found him writing strange things in his diary by chance. The hand writing differed in almost every single page in there.

She was starting to get afraid. This gave her more reasons to distance herself from this weird child. He would space out at random times and go on with his day, but... _differently._ As if he was a different, separate person. His favorite food changed, his reflexes changed, his opinions changed, even the expression he gave when he heard something strange changed.

It stopped with time. Around three years ago. He was a "normal child" again. So, why were they still distant? Why were they always stood away from each other, hesitated to hug each other? Atlas never called, he never willingly came to her side and gave her a hug. Not even a stare. And she didn't know how to deal with him either.

"...I have no idea what to do anymore. I feel like he is detaching himself more and more from me... I'm a horrible mother, aren't I?"

"Sshhh..." He placed a small kiss on her forehead, and stroked her back. He was deeply distressed about this as well. Seeing his wife in tears made him feel heavy as well. And even though he had no common blood with this kid, he felt the need to be his father figure. But he felt weird because of that, Atlas could always say that he is not his father, and therefore should fuck off from his life. And he would be right. But at the same time, he was his mother's husband, and the father of his half brother. 

This created a very awkward relationship between them. 

\---

"...Lucifer, I want to ask something. But promise me to never tell this to anyone."

Lucifer was intrigued by this, his head turned to him in surprise. Atlas, who kept himself away all the time, wanted to ask him something private? Out of everyone?   
Lucifer quickly snatched himself out of his surprise, and sat down on the chair next to the crackling fire place. "Go on."

"How do I explain this... Sometimes, I switch with my past self in my dreams. And live as him for a while there. But it doesn't feel like a dream. It's like I'm not asleep. I travelled back in time, I can hear and feel things, I can speak and I... But... But I wake up fully rested."

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For clarification; Atlas doesn't have DID. He didn't have repeated childhood trauma. I will explaim other stuff later on 👀👀


	3. Complicated!

Parallel things and timelines...

Are weird.

After much discussion with Lucifer about these strange dreams he has been having for a while, Lucifer sat down on his desk and thought about the exchange they had.  
Based on the explanation Atlas gave, he had thought of a few possible options at what happened, and why it happened in the first place.

First was what had happened of course.

To Atlas, things went like this;  
He fell asleep on his bed one night and woke up in another person's body. When he inspected himself in the mirror and looked at his surroundings, he realized that he was in Devildom. But he looked way younger, and shorter. There was a faint lipstick stain on his forehead.

He freaked out a bit about the possibility of him undergoing a shrinking spell, but when he looked at the calendar on the wall, he realized that he had returned to 2019, 13th of December.  
His heart his stomach dropped and beads of sweat made it's way down his face. He looked at the bed, and realized that he was alone. He looked at the clock afterwards, it was around 9 AM. Great. No one was home. He was safe for now.  
Reluctantly, he exited the room and looked around. The House of Lamentation was the same, not even the paintings on the wall were changed. The lamps were in exact same shape. 

Strange.

The world fell black soon after he got down the stairs, and saw a colourful sketchbook on the table, with his name written on it.

\---

Everything felt so... Real.  
There was no way that was a dream, he told himself when he woke up in his dream.

\---

"Aren't angels supposed to be good beings though?"

He didn't remember this part of his childhood.

Or why he was there.  
He just remembered "waking up" with a glass of milk in front of him, and jolted a bit when he noticed he was in Lucifer's study. He looked around in the room while the man that was his step father in... the future(?) sat on his couch quietly as he looked through a few documents.   
A small idea struck his head when he noticed the white, way too big coat on the hanger and he smiled in mischief.  
This was certainly not the time to be... well, planning weird things. But this was his best shot at getting to know Lucifer better. He knew that he was going to wake up from this as well. Might as well make it worth it.

And now, he was sitting down on the couch opposite to Lucifer while the demon laid down on the red sofa, his hands clasped on his chest. He also had a notebook he scribbled for comedic effect, even though he was actually noting stuff down in his own handwriting. He also stole Lucifer's glasses and wore them. They hurt his eyes, but Lucifer didn't stop him.

It was all to distract Lucifer and make him think that he was saying random stuff to sound intelligent. He was supposed to be a small kid after all.

"In theory, they should be. But not every being up in the heavens is pure and... ethical in general."

"I didn't know that. But if angels are bad, don't they become fallen angels?"

"God doesn't make them fallen angels if they intend to be malicious for it's plans. It is the most two-faced thing in this universe. It's pretty malicious, and it just pretends to be a good and forgiving creator. Creator of everything, our loving lord and father... It's just a huge lie."

_Mister, you are speaking to a 7 year old. Not a university student... Well, technically, I'm a high school student but whatever._

"So, if angels and god can be bad, does this mean demons like you can be good?" He bit his lip and quickly added on. His disguise almost slipped there. "I-I mean... Uncle Beelzebub gave me a candy last night because I helped him while he worked out. So I guess demons are good..."

"You're right. Demons can be nice sometimes. Thought you should be careful, they might want to have a soul as innocent as yours as lunch."

_That is refreshing to now._

"My mom would freak out and destroy this place is that happened. Then I would fist fight god to make him make me come back to life."

**_What's mister Lucifer talking about?_ **

"What makes you think that you can win a fist fight agganist god?" Lucifer chuckled.

"I... am strong, okay? I can lift a chair with only one hand!" He took a sip from his glass of milk and felt his world spin a little, several things speaking inside his mind at the same time. **_I'm strong! I'm strong, I'm strong! Woaaaah!!_** The thing there said, and he was alarmed. What was happening, why was his head spinning? He blinked a couple of times and shook his head while Lucifer spaced out.

 ** _Huh? Mr. Lucifer doesn't look good._**

"You're ridiculous..." Lucifer put his arm over his eyes, sighing. 

Atlas' body moved on it's own and touched Lucifer's shoulder with his small hand. "Being ridiculous is nice, Mister Lucifer." He said, someone else's words came out from his mouth. He could swear he wanted to frown at the weird sensation. He wasn't thinking about that. So why did he say that? Was there someone else in his head? While he spaced out a bit, _he_ smiled out of his own control, a small giggle escaping his lips. Atlas' own grip on _himself_ slowly fading away. "You- You should be ridiculous too. Then you can be happier."

"What are you talking about?"

"My mom always works until late hours, so she's not home. She's always tired, but when I say a funny thing, she smiles and she's not tired anymore. You're tired too, right Mister Lucifer?"

"Maybe I am..."

"So, being ridiculous is s... right..."

"Right..."

Lucifer yawned, shifted on the bed and closed his eyes. Atlas only saw small glimpses of him now. 

"Don't... excited in here... a mess... I'm... rest a litt..."

Atlas woke up in cold sweat that night, his head ringing loudly. This was the second time such thing happened. He didn't remember anything about a memory like this from his childhood. Does that mean, his teenager self was in control when through all the snippets he couldn't remember in his life? Like that time when he was told that he had "argued with someone" the previous week, despite of not remembering it?

This was certainly a problem.  
He felt fully rested, he didn't suffer from lack of sleep. Rather, he felt energetic. But while his body didn't feel tired, his head was a mess. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't fall asleep. So, he sat up on his creaky bed, took a sip of water from the bottle on his bedside table and pat Mısır, who trilled when Atlas rose up on the bed. He pet her soft black and white fur, and smiled a little. 

He got up, changed his sweat soaked shirt and threw it in the dirty laundry bin, got a new t-shirt from his closet and rubbed his eyes a little. He didn't want to turn on the lights, as he could barely see his surroundigs from how half-asleep he was. He yawned and got back inside his covers. Mısır purred and cuddled up to him, and Atlas sighed quietly. Just what was happening?

He could worry about that tomorrow. Sleep consumed him yet again when he completely relaxed.  
Yeah, he wasn't going to school tomorrow. 

\---

Lucifer sat there, baffled.

He remembered everything, word for word, action for action. He remembered that strange conversation they had. Now that he thought about it, something was definetly off that day, and the continuing days after that. He bit his lip quietly, taking advantage of the darkness of the room for it to hide the conflicted look on his face.  
A time travel without a body, in the form of a dream with similar effects to a rare disorder in the human realm. Was it even possible in a magical perspective? He was just ad confused as Atlas in this situation.

But what confused him even more was the fact that Atlas told him this all of a sudden. The rebellious teenager that usually refused stepping into the same room as him. He was very similar to Satan, but unlike him, he lived his anger in the form of avoidance nowadays. Or maybe reflected it on songs he listened to in the middle of the night. Lucifer knew he couldn't fall asleep without music, and hated silence. He was like that ever since his childhood...

But seriously, what part of it was his step son, that sat in front of him, and what parts were the Atlas back in those times, as a normal child? 

"...To sum it up, you switch places with your younger self in your dreams, but these events are real and you are travelling back in time as a mind, and not with a body. Am I correct?"

Atlas nodded quietly.

"...I don't think you have an imagination this wide, so I'm going to assume you are telling the truth."

"Don't make me regret telling you this." Atlas siftly responded, with an annoyed frown. He didn't care about Lucifer's small glare, and looked doen on his lap. The material was rough, it had all of the colours he liked. He ran his hand through it, and stopped when he felt something hard and round under his palm. He took a better look at the coat on. 

Luciter put this on him as a blanket, but it wasn't his. It was a soldier's coat, way too big for his body. It had a name tag on it, his old surname was stiched there along with the red and white turkish flag. It smelled faintly of pleasant yet cheap, men's perfume.

He imspected the clothing a bit more. Then, realization hit bim on the face like a slap with a wet belt. He looked up immedietly, his eyes blown wide. His cheeks were flushed, his mouth open a little. A somewhat scared look was put on his face as he held the jacket tighter to himself. He looked up and down, and saw a couple small, shiny medals on it. He inspected it. These all belonged to the Turkish Army Forces, each one resembled an acomplishment. He looked at the size once more. It was way too big to fit him.

"...This... This is my dad's." 

Lucifer looked down, and nodded.

Something in Atlas' chest cracked, and it fell on the floor again.   
A tear made it's way down his left cheek, his almond eyes were glossed over as be stared at his step father. He then frowned deeply. His face looked so different now, almost like a brand new person. It almost scared Lucifer how fast this kid's demeanor changed.

"...Lucifer. What happened?" His voice was low, but it was thick, and full of demand. 

"Your father requested that I would give this to you." He responded, and leaned forward on the couch he sat on. The crackling of the fireplace wasn't enough to fill the silence between them. One side had a fully adult demon that had no idea how to interact with his step son, and had a complex relationship with him so far. The other side had a confused teenager that was full of anger, full of the pain of being neglected throughout his entire life. One person had to deal with disgusting traumas and an identity crisis after his sister's death, the other person was unfairly treated at every step of his short life, and was always treated like a secondary tool by everyone else he's known.

"When did you talk to him?"

"A week ago."

"And you never told me? Lucifer, my mother doesn't even acknowledge the agreement she has with my dad, I haven't seen my dad in 6 years. Ever since you guys got married." He kept his voice down to not bring any attention, but his displease was clear.

"I brought the jacket simply because he told me that he didn't know when he will see you again. Your mother insisted that I wouldn't let you know, you have to respect her Atlas." Lucifer kept his voice down, but th3 irritation and concern was clearly there. She was his wife after all, he respected and loved her deeply. They have been by each other's side through good and bad, and now he really screwed up. He was supposed to leave the jacket on him in secret and go away, but he accidentally woke him up. 

"She is trying to do what's good for you."

Throughout their entire conversation, Lucifer sat on a seat of spikes and prayed to whatever that was up there that Atlas didn't notice the jacket. But lady luck was a devious whore towards him.

"By not letting me see my _blood relative_? She is perfectly fine with you and I talking though." He finally raised his voice, getting an angry look from him that legitimately intimidated him. But he didn't want to back down, he wasn't going to he scared by this stupid demon and his stupid words.

"...Have I ever told you that my mother never cared for me? Had she ever told you that I handn't known what a home made dinner was until I arrived here? That I passed my days with the dry and overly sweetened food from the cafeteria of my school? Had she told you that she was happy about how she got a "break" off of taking care of me when we arrived here?"

He paused for a second to look at the demon's face, and tsked when he was met with a concerned frown.

"She did. But you never said anything. She never wanted my custody. But since my father was on meds and was away for work most of the time, I was given to her. She moped around the entire day when I first arrived, and didn't even left a single plate of food, or a note inside the house the next day." He leaned over and out his elbows on his knees, bumping his left knee repeatedly.

"I witnessed... Their fights." His eyes were blown open, tears and snot falling everywhere through his sniffles. "I witnessed their screams. I saw my mom being pulled by her haiiiir, and being dragged arouuund... I saw a beer bottle smashed on my father's heaaad, I saw blooood... the judge didn't believe me when I said that." He smiled swaying his head side to side as he spoke. "My dad fell on the floor, and my mom cried, and I watched everyhing countless of times from the door, and I saw it..."

His eyes were puffed up, a few tears have already dripped down his chin, on the carpet. The fireplace continued to crackle nonetheless, not a care in the world. Lucifer gulped. He knew Atlas witnessed domestic abuse to some degree, but he never thought it was this bad. Like mother-like son, he thought. The way they cried, the way their faces scrunched, the way they had their breakdowns, it was all the same.   
They suffered from similar things, but they were just... so different at the same time. Lucifer was at a loss.

"I didn't remember anything like that, but I saw it. She... She shouldn't be telling you if I can see my dad or not."

"...Even if I wanted to let you see your father as soon as possible, I can't."

"Why?"

An uncomfortable silence passed baco and forth between them this entire night, it was starting to get annoying. Lucifer sighed, and looked away. 

"...I was going to tell this to you later, but I guess I need to let it out of me before you freak out."

"And that is?"

"You won't be going back to the human world for a while, or however long Diavolo seems as fit."

"...Really?"

"Really."

_"...Fuck. FUCK."_

\---

Lucifer sighed once again, putting his head on his desk with a thump. He was tired after that long, complicated exchange that had no proper conclusion. Everything felt so rushed, and for the first time in a long while, he had do many things to say and explain but he had no idea in what order to say them.

There were a lot of things he was supposed to say to this child. But really, what bothered him the most was the fact that he didn't have an excuse to defend his wife's actions properly. He wished the situation worked out like that, but what both of them did was... just neglect. A form of abuse. And they didn't even have a proper explanation for it, and they shouldn't have. He felt embarrassed for himself, was this what the humans called "guilt"? Why was he beating himself over it when it was just his... stepson that he hasn't talked to... properly, for years...

"Ugh- Why does have to be so... weird?" He shivered, not liking these things he felt at all. He rose up on his elbows and rubbed his forehead. At one side, he was faulty for most things. He sparked the fire by getting her pregnant, he was irresponsible. A stupid man that screwed up everything once again, just like back then. With the whole celestial war thing. But if that hadn't happened as an accident, they would probably never get married. And Lucifer would miss a great chance at being happy, he would let her get out of her life completely. At another side, Turna was a super irresponsible and neglectful person towards her own son, and felt great remorse for it. But she had no idea how to fix things...

No, she was a smart woman. She knew exactly how to deal with this. But she was afraid to say something, take the first step to make up with her son. But she was afraid of rejection, like a small child. She didn't want to give her son up to the father either. 

And finally, they had Atlas. Who was an enigma in of himself. He traveled around in time in his dreams, he felt lile he was the bitter result of ignorance of his parents, and hated himself for it. He reflected this hate to his mother, who wasn't there for him that much due to her own hesitancy and fears, her own hate towards herself. Being stuck in an abusive marrige for so long, having nowhere to go, fearing of being left all alone once again with a small kid... And he reflected this hate on Lucifer, and his younger brother.

He knew they all needed to sit down one day and have a long, long chat. But when was that day going to come?   
Diavolo had explicitly told him that Atlas wasn't going anywhere until they made up properly today, how was he supposed to do that?  
It wasn't as easy as just... sitting down and talking.

"This is annoying..."


	4. Two-Faced

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There isn't much story,,,,

"....Surprise!"

_POP!_

The multicoloured confettis fell on his head and his surroundigs the moment he stepped inside the council room. It was after school, he had just finished his Classical Devildom Literature, in which he just fucked around at the back of his class with his three other friends. The notification sound that came from his phone got his attention for once, so he unlocked the phone and looked at his messages.

1 New Message from Barbatos  
● Barbatos  
> Lord Diavolo is expecting you at the council room. Please hurry.

"Who's that?" A short demon that sat besides him -his name was Keles, he was in the tennis team of RAD- asked curiously. Atlas huffed as a response, and waved his hand in an unbothered way. "Barbatos, he wants me to come over to the council room." 

"That early? We've got a lot of catching up to do though." Another demon said. This one wasn't in any club, but he was the art teacher's favorite pupil -he was a meek student despite his tall build, his name was Elawic-. The other one besides him nodded as well, he was the tallest and buffest one out of them all -and he was more of a leader for the classroom with his sheer strength, this one's name was Leslie. Though they do not matter that much to the current events, unfortunately-. His friend group was a perfect balance between being the losers and the popular kids.

"The future king is calling for me, apparently it's urgent." Sarcasm dripped from his voice as he got uo and adjusted his jacket, which came down to his knees. He adjusted his hair with the pocket mirror he sneaked in today, and put it back on the desk. "Hide this somewhere, I don't want to deal with the Praying Mantis' face if she finds it."

"Nah, don't worry. I'll hide it." Keles pointed towards the bin next to the door, and Atlas pat him on the shoulder as a gesture of gratitude. R.A.D has recently put a protocol in which the students' bags would be checked at random days at random times. It was mostly to pull the recent drug addiction rate down. They confiscated things like cigarettes, lighters, sharp objects like knives, to ensure the safety of the students. They also took the pocket mirrors for some reason. At least they had some entertainment today, as one of the girl students accidentally alerted the fire alarm while she was smoking in the bathroom.

So students had to come up with creative ways to hide their stuff. Some people broke a portion of the walls on the corner, got a piece that could cover the hole on the wall, and hid their stuff there. Some did what Atlas did, putting their stuff inside the trashcans or the recycling bins. Some of them hid it under broken tiles, some of them took out a brick out of the old fountain, placed their things there, and put the brick back in it's place.

There is nothing you couldn't hide in this giant school.

"I'll be leaving then." He sais goodbye to his friends and left with his bag, mumbling a song to himself while he walked down the corridors. A few people stared at him while he walked, but he didn't notice. He was the son of their Classical Literature proffesor and the Almighty Morningstar after all. Pushing the thought aside, he decided to forget everything that's happened last night. This was way too complicated for his brain, and it fried his ceberellum to think about it... Wait, didn't that part of the brain deal with balance?

"Hm..." He climbed the stairs absent-mindedly, several songs playing all at once in his head. A few people ran past him quickly while shouting, and he looked after them for a small second before continuing. All of a sudden, he cried out in surprise and tripped over something. He fell, hitting his forehead and scratching his hands on the rough tiles on the floor. 

"Ow... Ow... Ugh..." He raised his hand to hold his forehead, and realised that blood was oozing out from the scratches. _"Ananı sikeyim..."_ He cursed, and got up slowly. He got support from the stairs and pushed himself up with struggle, wincing at the pain on his kneecaps. "Of.... Great. I hope I didn't break any bones..." He looked behind himself angrily to see what he tripped on give a good kick to it. He opened his mouth to yell, but froze when he found he tip of a tail by his feet. 

It was about the size of his hand, and it was cut off completely. It was in a shade of a cute purple and looked like a reptile's tail, he couldn't guess if it was a snake's or an crocodile's though.

Blood was splashed around the tail, it already dried up and took an ugly brown colour. He swallowed, this wasn't a nice... encounter, to say the least. That's when he spotted a rather peculiar person at the corner of the stairs, hiding himself away in the darkness. He looked around, and saw that there weren't many people were on this floor. They were completely alone. He took a good look at the person. They were in their demon form, but their horns were tinier than most demons he had seen in this academy. So they must be a bit younger than the seniors, maybe the sophomores. 

"...Hey, you alright?" He asked, noticing the broken "he/him" pronoun pin on the floor. He knelt down, and took the pin from the ground, inspecting it to see if he could fix it somehow. He was good with arts and crafts, along with fixing stuff. So maybe, he could find a new way to attach the needle to the pin and stick the pin together without having to use glue. He looked at the boy on the floor. The tail he tripped on belonged to him, Atlas noticed. The boy's tail was cut off from it's tip. He could see the blood and the tip of his bone from the fleshy wound.

"...Guess not." Atlas came closer to the demon, and the demon watchec him silently. Almost like a frightened cat, ready to fight for it's life at any time. The situation was ironic enough as it is, so he decided to proceed with caution.

"...They attacked you because of the pin, right?" He sat on the floor in front of him, crossing his legs. The boy nodded, his eyes were red and puffy from crying. "...They..." His voice was raspy, so he created his throat. He was shivering, the first, shocking trauma of the partially lost limb was gone, but that didn't mean he was doing good. "They told me that... That I was... a faggot. That I was disgusting... And cut my tail off, they ran off when they heard you coming."

"So those assholes were the culprits..." He said, and sighed. He was horrible with comforting people, but he coukd distract him and keep him calm until he managed to send him to an hospital. He got close to him, pulling his bag down and opening it. He put the pin inside there and pulled out a first aid kit instead, along with some bandages and pain killer injections. 

It was probably illegal for him to use that, but when did the law in here actually did it's job properly? This guy got beaten up for wanting to exist. There were many like him in every realm. He had seen it so many times. People getting killed, dismembered, beaten up, being set on fire, all in the name of religion. All for calling themselves something other than the labels they were put on after their birth... He shook his head a little to come back to his senses, and looked at the tail. 

"If we leave your tail like that, it'll get infected. And I doubt you wanna deal with green and yellow puss all around it later." He said, causing the boy to scrunch his nose in disgust. He just gave him a small smirk, and the demon gave a breathy chuckle. His hands were still trembling, and tears were glued to his eyes. His face was pale. He looked like he was about to throw up, so Atlas made sure to stand in front of the stairs and block his view. He wouldn't want to see his decapitated hand, so he guessed that the same thing applied to demons as well, even if their tails and horns grew back.

He couldn't relate to the situation and he didn't want to hear the personal problems of a random stranger, but that didn't mean he had to be an ass about it and not help him when he was this bad. "Come on, let me treat it. I'm assuming you don't want to go to infirmary?"

The boy was surprised to hear that. He sniffled, his nose was pretty red. He looked like a mess, but could you blame him? In a society where people are insistent of disrespecting others, and thinking that their basic ass life is the only way to live, people like him would get discriminated a lot. This was a hate crime thar could've resulted in much more, if Atlas wasn't there by luck. 

"Wait, no." The boy said, and tried to get up by getting support from the wall. But he hissed, and held his right knee in protest. Guess they did more than beating him up and cutting his tail. "I... I can treat myself. You can go."

"You can't even walk down the stairs if I don't help you." Atlas said coldly, and crossed his arms. "Either accept my help, or crawl your way towards your house."

"You're..." He frowned. "You know I can kill you, right?"

"I mean, go ahead. I won't stop you." He shrugged. "This life is way to boring anyway. But rejecting help is a wonderful way to destroy yourself. The choice is yours."

The demon seemed conflicted for a few seconds, before looking away and sighing. "...That nurse is so annoying, so no. I don't... want to go." 

"She is indeed. She's also gone today." He made the stuff ready right next to himself, and opened the kit. Firstly, he had to clean up the dried blood and stop possible bleeding... He was totally unqualified to deal with wounds, but they had no choice. Plus, he could finally put the knowledge he got from Satan's books to use.

"...An ambulance is a bad idea."

"You don't want an ambulance?"

"I don't." The boy looked away. His face was bitter. He pursed his lips together. "I don't want there to be any rumours about me. Or you. No one knows I'm... you know..." 

"A dude. Yeah," Atlas looked sideways to check if there was anyone coming. "I can understand that to some degree, in a different way though..." He said the last part in an incoherent mumble, and finally decided to get to work. He seemed calm enough to listen to him now. It was then that Atlas actually paid attention to his face. He had short, rough black hair. His eyes were dark brown, so dark that they looked black. His skin was in a similar shade to him, not too brown but definetly not white either. Purple and dark green scales extended down from his neck.

"...Does it hurt?"

"It does."

"Alright, I'll inject some of the medicine uncle- I mean, _Satan_ gave me. It'll numb your pain, alright?" He got a nod from the demon, so he cleaned his hands with the best thing he had at the moment; hand sanitizer. He waited for it to completely dry before he took the boy's tail in his hands slowly. It twitched in his hands, and he resisted the urge to gag. The wound was horrible. "Close your eyes if you are scared, it'll only hurt like a fly's bite.

He closed his eyes, and Atlas injected the solution slowly. After adding the appropriate amount, he waited for a while. "It feels weird, right?" He says, and the boy nods. "It's cold, but warm at the same time."

"It'll go away soon." 

The reason why he wasn't hurrying too much was because the bleeding had already stopped, thanks to the fast regeneration of demons, and the tail was going to grow back anyway. He was only there to clean it up a bit and wrap it around a bandage. After a couple seconds, he poked around it and applied slight pressure. "Does it hurt?"

The boy shook his head, and Atlas looked around for a water fountain. There was one right next to the stairs on the upper floor. He ripped the lower part of his jacket with his hands, under the boy's shocked eyes.

"W-What the hell are you doing!?" He cried out, staring at the cloth in Atlas' hands. "I can't clean the wound with bandages you know. I have a limited supply." Atlas said calmly. "Now I gotta wet this thing. I'll be right back."

The jacket he was wearing was the gift he got from his father.

From then out, things went smoother and faster. Atlas cleaned most of the wound with the warm, damp piece of cloth in his hands, bandaged it nicely, and told him to hold it up for a while to avoid unnecessary bleeding. The rip of his tail wasn't clean at all, if he had guessed right, it was probably ripped apart. Must've been very painful for him. They buried the piece of the tail in one of the plant pots nearby, and started to walk away together.

"...Hey, What's your name?" He decided to ask, as he helped him walk towards the destination he wanted to go to; his classroom. Atlas' one arm was on his waist as the boy's arm was wrapped around his shoulder. The boy looked around constantly to see if there was anyone around, but it was way past the last bell already. Atlas got a phone call at that moment, from his mother, asking him where he was, and he had to make a lie on the spot. He turned off the phone before she had a chance to question his lie, and turned back to the boy.

"...I asked a question."

"Yeah, I heard that." He looked ahead, towards the corridor. "I'm not sure how to respond to that... I managed to convince my mother to buy me those fancy medicines, to make my voice deeper and stuff... But I never thought about a name."

"There isn't any T around here? Or gender clinics?"

"Nope. Even if there was, it would be really expensive... Those medicines are expensive as well, they come from private companies in here. And probably illegal because the DDA haven't done any research on them yet... But they work." 

"What if something happens to you later on?"

"...I don't wan't to think about that." He scratched his hair, sighing. "...I don't have a name. My... My old name, I don't want to use it."

"Hm..." He hummed, disintrested. "Well, I'll be at the science class at 10 tomorrow. You can come and see me anytime."

"Alright. We're at our destination." 

They never met in school grounds again.

And so, they parted their ways.  
Atlas checked his clock, and realized that he was about an hour and a half late. The so called "urgent" meeting must be over now, so he could go back to HoL and deal with Lucifer's bitchery after dinner, or completely avoid it if he used some excuse to lock himself in his room. Or maybe run away to the city, with the protective charm Diavolo gave him long ago. It's magic was still powerful, though it hadn't came handy so far.   
Still, he wanted to learn what had happened. So, pulling his hood up, he started to walk towards the council room.

\---

"Surpriseee!" 11 different voices, all on different pitches and tones, called out to him at once and Atlas found himself tackled in a tight hug by someone that smelled like expensive floral perfume. He was almost as tall as that person now, and it felt weird. "Welcome home!" Asmodeus said, lifting his face from his shoulder to look at his face properly. Unlike Atlas', his eyes sparked with mischief and happiness. As if he genuinely felt happy to meet an old friend.

"Took you long enough... Really! Asmo, get off of Atlas!"

"He is my nephew I haven't seen for a really long time, besides, you smell!"

"Haa!? I just took a shower this morning, my hair is still wet!" 

"Well, I can't have your wet rat hair ruining his clothes now, can I?"

"Why, you!!!"

The warmth from the demon's embrace felt as if it was spreading around his body. Was this some kind of weird magic? He knew Asmodeus didn't do weird stuff like that. But somehow, this warmth didn't bother the usually no-touchy Atlas. However, he noticed something weird in himself when Asmodeus continued to bicker with Leviathan, and talk to him about how excited he was with the party. Atlas frowned at the strange feeling in his chest. Just like he remembered, vividly, Asmodeus was still pretty as ever. Enough to make him get goosebumps. 

This distraction that came from people like him was starting to get on his nerves. Was it just Asmodeus being feminine that made him smile like a creep to himself while he trailed off in his thoughts during class? Or was it something stranger? He got distracted by him in his classes, during his homework, during the dinners they had as a family, and he could swear that every person Asmo hung out with was very sketchy and annoying. Why did he felt that way? 

Well, he knew that this was just a childhood crush, or something like that, but he ignored the possibility. And hid it deep inside his brain to never confront it. So far, he had been attracted to girls, where did this come from all of a sudden? He was just doing it for attention, wasn't he? But no one knew about these feelings, so why was he thinking that way?

He didn't want to think about it. Somedays, he felt open to the possibility, but some days, everything about genders and sexualities infuriated him. It was stressful to think about when all he could think about was his own attractions, it was so confusing. On some days, he longed for a tall and gentle girl and disliked boys entirely, and on some days, he completely ignored them and focused on the cuteness of a short boy.

"Curse Asmodeus." He wrote in his notebook sometimes. "He put this stupid thing into my mind. Now I'm stuck with it."

_"You two, stop this right this instant."_

"Oooh, dad is scary..." The gremlin spoke, but Atlas paid no mind to him.

The pretty demon was pulled away from him, but the strange sensations he caused Atlas to feel lingered. Atlas came back to his senses, his vision seeing something other than the beautiful face of the demon, and noticing the dark aura around Lucifer. He held held both of them by their napes like cats, and pushed them away haphazardly, which got a hiss from the 3rd born and a squeal of "My hair!" from the 5th born. 

There was a big banner there that said "Welcome Home! ♡" in a childish handwriting, decorated with shiny and colourful stars. The metallic markers that were in various colours were used to make small drawings of everyone, Atlas standing on the center. The art style was very cute and simple. The foods on the table and the balloons had matching colour schemes, and were all in his favorite colour; Purple and blue.

There were pink and white bowls of deserts on the table as well, each decorated down to every last detail. But it didn't look too busy, it was pleasant to look at. The roasted chicken, the white, buttery rice that almost looked like snow, the scent of spices, chicken and meat... It all made his mouth water. The deserts were mostly milk-based, as he hated anything that was too sweet and crunchy. There was some chocolate cake as well, and just looking at it made him want to jump straight into the table. The 6th born must've agreed with him, as he was barely held back by Barbatos and Belphegor.

The food was so familiar and warm.

"Hahaha! Turna, you saw that?"

"I have." His mother giggled, crossing his arms. 8 years have caused a few creases on her face that became clearer when she smiled, but she was still radiant as ever. "Lucifer, don't go so hard on them."

"Even the littlest of punishments is heavy in your eyes. How else am I supposed to discipline them?"

"I don't know, I only raised two kids. Not six." She winked, getting a tiny glare from her husband. She smirked back and stick her tongue out, giggling again. She walked to her older son once again, and stared at him for a while. She looked and acted like a complete stranger. She wasn't like this before, Atlad thought through the awkward silence between them. 

Before Atlas could speak, he found himself in another tight embrace.

His eyes widened, as he took the familiar scent of his mother in his lungs for the first time in years. It wasn't masked with any perfume, or any sort of weird magic. It was just her comforting smell that he longed for during the nights where he softly cried himself to sleep. Where he felt cast out, neglected, abandoned by everyone in his life. 

He was still the child that wanted nothing but a comforting hug on the inside. And now, he finally got it. It wasn't his half brother that got this hug. It was him. For the first time ever since Nekir's birth, all attention was on him. All love, support, the welcoming atmosphere, was for him.   
He was angry at himself for feeling so mushy by a simple hug, when he felt this weird anger towards them for so long. But, here he was, trembling like a leaf in his mother's arms.

 _"Welcome home, my lamb, my baby..."_ His mother must've felt the same way, judging by how her voice trembled agganist his ear as she spoke their native language. He felt a tingling on his nose at that moment, and his face muscles moved agganist his will. He tried his best to keep the sob that travelled through his throat, but failed when he had to breathe. A shaky breath, continued by a small sob was all it took for him to crumble, as he buried his face in his mother's chest. She smelled like paper and laundry detergent. His hands travelled up her back and grasped her back tightly, like she was going away again if he let go.

"Sshhh..." She wiped her eyes and let him go. She cupped his cheeks and wiped away the tears in them, as Atlas sniffled shortly. "We can talk later if you want to. Let's have fun, okay?"

Atlas nodded, and wiped his nose with the handkerchief Barbatos handed him quietly, with a mysterious smile on his face. 

"Alright, let's have fun..."

"Beel- Wait, Barbatos prepared that for me and my brother!"

"Hm? Oh," _nom nom nom_ "...So that's why it was so hard for a banana..." _nom, nom, nom_

"Wh- You're still eating it! Aaah, wait, don't eat Atlas' share! Nooooo!"

\----


	5. Go Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning;   
> Attempted murder, hallucinations, panic attacks (sort of), anxiety, basically a nervous breakdown.
> 
> Fuck grammar. I'm sleepy.

_"Why do I hate you so much? I dunno. You're just... annoying. Mom loves you more. Lucifer gives you more food. You're just annoying. I don't like you." The boy talked to himself in whispers, with an seven month-old demon baby in his arms. He stroked the small horns on top of his head gently, enjoying the smootb texture of it. The baby's horns were small and fragile, it could snap off at the slightest of force._

_His original plan was to pull his horns until they snapped off, but he was scared to do it in case his **anne** or Lucifer would hear them. He didn't want to be beaten with a rubber slipper, or a rolling pin again. Or worse, get his hair pulled and thrown around like his anne and baba used to do a few years ago. So, he was going to scare his brother a bit to teach him a lesson, for being born. He didn't explicitly think that way of course, he didn't have the emotional and logical intelligence to think like that. But he had an undying hatred for the child._

_squeak, squeak... shaaaaaaaaaaa..._

_His brother was already awake by the sound, groaning and fussing in his arms. "Mom won't be happy if you cry so much, you know." He scolded him, putting him on the floor for a second to put a bath plug on the drain. Just like how his mom did when she wanted to bathe him. The baby, however, was crying as the result of being left on the cold floor._

_"Shhh, shhh... I told you to be quiet! Geez!" He protested, pulling him back haphazardly and closing his tiny mouth with his hand. He smooshed his brother' cheeks with little force to muffle him, and pulled him up on the half filled tub. The baby screamed into his hand and squirmed around when the boy accidentally hurt his arms and shoulders, when he pulled him up._

_"You're so loud!" The boy said, panicked. If Lucifer saw them like that, he could be beaten up again! He knew that what he's doing is wrong, his mother taught him and hurting others on purpose was what soldiers did. But he didn't want to harm him! He just wanted to show him who was the boss, if his brother was so amazing in everyone's eyes, then he should be smart enough to know his place after this! "Lucifer will wake up if you keep crying!"_

_slosh, slosh, SPLASH!_

_The baby was horrified, all it cared about was survival. Heart wrenching screams, gurgles and coughs covered the room as his older brother showed his head up and down inside the desk. The cries he let out was enough to brust an old grandma into tears of horror. It would give his mother a scar that would never leave for hundreds of years, and she would be reminded of those moments whenever he heard a baby's cry. Lucifer would remember his sister's painful, silent scream as she fell, her mouth would open so wide that her jaw would dislocate. Her vocal cords would rupture._

_That was the same sound of agony the baby was making at that moment. His head went inside water, up and down. Up and down. Water splashed everywhere. Drip drop. Drip, drop. The boy's tiny hands hurt from trying to keep his brother from squirming too much, while doing his business._

_"Is the water cold? Really? Sorry, I don't know how to make it warm."_

_shlosh, slosh, splash! slosh, drip, drop, slosh..._

_"...The sound you make is funny, when I put you in here like this._

_SLOSH, SPLASH!_

_"Hehe... hehehehe, one more time, come on! Don't cough! Hold your breath i-"_

_"Atlas, what the hell are you doing!?"_

\---

Atlas jolted out of his bed, his body covered in sweat.

Adrenaline pumped through his body, as his hands trembled and felt clammy. His entire body felt so hot, but cold at the same time. His eyes looked through everywhere in his body, to figure out where he was. And who he was, exactly. Once he made sure it was his original, older self, he took steady breaths to calm himself down.

"Hah... hah... ha... Holy shit..." He muttered, and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He pulled his extremely messy black hair out of his face, and looked up on the ceiling. He thanked god that he was back in the real world right before shit got real, and he got into a lot of trouble. Even though he wasn't religious at all, the sentence "Allah'ım sana şükür." never left his mouth for thirty seconds. His mind swirled between the dream and reality, and it wasn't pleasant. He tried to even out his breathing, while his heart pounded continiously inside his ribcage. He had forcefully woke himself up, by opening his eyes purposefully. It was something he did when he had intense nightmares.

He sighed once again, completely calming himself down before getting up to wash his face. He was't going to get any sleep tonight. Something in his chest felt like it was going to explode at this rate. So, after washing his face and putting on new pajamas, along with his mismatched orange and green jacket, he went over to the only person who would be awake at this hour.  
Leviathan.

Walking through the halls quietly, he relived the memories he had whilist passing through here. Beel took him on his shoulders for a ride one night. He ran from Mammon here when he stole his stack of money. He found a big blood stain in here a few months before they left, and no one told him what had happened there to cause it. He laid down in here during summer because his room was too hot, and made Levi panic because he thought the kid was dead. Lucifer held him by his hand and took him out during a winter day, and brought him outside to the Hocus Pocus. 

Halfway there, Atlas had to step on Lucifer's footprints to properly walk, because the snow was too deep and cold for his short and small legs. He was around eight years old, it was his second visit to Devildom for the winter vacation. And already adjusting to the father role, Lucifer agreed to treat him like his own son. In a way, everything would be more simple if he swallowed the envy he had for his younger brother. But after that dream, he was even more terrified of himself. Even though he witnessed the event, he wasn't in control of his own body. 

When he tried to think back into the memory, before his dream, it was always hazy. He only remembered the part where someone appeared and took something from his arms, next Lucifer was screaming at him in his demon form, and his mother was hugging his brother tightly with an expressionless face. But after the dream (the co-conciousness he just exprienced with his younger self), everything clicked into place.

He almost became a murderer.

And the realization of it didn't settle in until he passed by his younger brother's separate bedroom. 

He froze there and held onto the sleeve of his zip-up jacket tightly.

A murderer among the family...

A filthy child that almost killed his own brother out of jealousy.

He looked down at his hands, and shuddered. They were ice cold because the hallways didn't have a heating system installed. Just like that day. So cold... So brutal, completely soaked with water.

Splashing water, the reddish, round face of his brother, his tears, his coughs, his eyes that were barely open, screaming for mercy in the form of gargled sobs, his own psychotic laugh, his messed up requests, his arms that pinched and squeezed Nekir hard enough to leave bruises, the dripping of the sink, the ice cold water, occasionally splashing in small droplets on his face, his soaked and rolled up sleeves, the white fluorescent lamp on the ceiling, the white sink, the white and turquoise tiles in different geometrical shapes, the blue pajamas his brother wore, the feeling of being pulled and thrown on the ground, followed by panicked footsteps and raised voices, being dragged around by a strong hand, very painfully...

He realized his breathing was very slow, almost gone and his vision was blurry from spacing out so much. He felt his stomach cramp and turn, and put that hand over his mouth to avoid puking for a few seconds. He didn't see it, but he was sweating cold bullets and his face was pale. He could feel his arms trembling, and his knees struggled to carry him around. The more he thought about the conversations he had with the child that was sleeping right behind this door, the worse he got.

He looked at the door once more, reluctantly. He had been there once. It was a cute room, very cozy and comfortable. There was a big library, a shelf full of figurines and collectables... Some plant seeds, big seeds, small seeds, cool seeds, lame seeds, nice clothes, ugly clothes, terrifying nightmares, thrilling dreams, a song player, clouds, watermelon seeds, his mother's wedding photo, Mısır, the brothers, anxiety, hatred, depression, death tax, religion, crime, hatred, that boy he met a while ago, pronoun pin, needles, blue eyes, red eyes, angels, demons, humans, Lord Diavolo, Barbatos, sweat, birthday, Restorante Six, the jacket, his baba, soldiers, toys, friends, time, red face, water, murder, murder, murder, murder murder, muder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder muder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder-

He felt nausea crawling up his stomach, and gagged. It was so cold, so damp, it smelled like cold water, it was horrible. He wanted to run. He wanted to go. He swore he was innocent. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to kill. He was sane, he was safe. He didn't want to go to hell. He didn't want to die. _He_ did it, not him! But who was _he_ anymore? Was it himself? Or was it a different entity, it hurt his head so much. To think. He just wanted to take his own head, shake it, and put it back inside until his brain was a useless lump of fat and meat. 

"I killed, I killed, I killed, I killed, haven't I? I did it, but I didn't, I didn't want to do it, he deserved it, but did he- I am a murderer, I almost killed him, there is no difference- oh my god, no, no, no, NO, I haven't done anything! I swear I'm innocent, please I don't want to burn in hell, I'm so scared- I'm gonna die, I'm gonna get killed, I'm worthless anyway, I'm gonna get killed!" He mumbled impulsively, tears falling out of his eyes freely. He walked around in the hallway, and lost his balance of a sudden. He crouched on the floor, right outside a bathroom he forcefully made himself walk to. He had to puke. There was everything in that room. Spiders, wet tiles, they were everywhere. He held his head, as id it was about to explode from the pressure of his thoughts. He just wanted to scream, to cry, to alert everyone. He needed help. The thing was going go kill him. Something was going to kill him. He was going to get destroyed, he killes his brother!

He had to get out of there before he fainted. He blinked a couple of times when he noticed shiny things in his hands, as if there were water droplets there. He frowned, and shook his head. He wasn't seeing hallucinations already. And he wasn't crying either. There is absolutely no way that was happening. 

\---

He wiped his face for good measure and noticed that there was light peeking out of the door, showing itself clearly in the dark hallway from Leviathan's room.

He knocked there, and the sound of controller smashing stopped for a brief second, then a few footsteps came.

"What's the password?"

"Diavolo has a very fragile heterosexuality."

Soon, the door opened hesitantly. Leviathan thought it was Lucifer at first so he was panicked, but when he heard Atlas' whispering voice, he took a deep breath of relief and opened the door. He spoke with a slight frown. "We gotta keep things safe you know, if Lucifer found you; you'd be dead! The password is "Magic Ruri Hana-chan will take over the world", how can you forget that?"

"...Are you done?"

"I am."

"Okay. Yo." Atlas raised his hand, putting on a fake smile by force. He tried not to let his mask crack, though his knees were still trembling.

"Yo." Levi mimicked the move, not noticing the situation the younger was in. "Do you, uh, want something?" He asked awkwardly. His hair stuck out from random places, and there were bags under his eyes. There was also a chocolate stain at the corner of his mouth. Atlas could see the frame of the open window behind Levi, and wondered how he managed to keep himself warm in this cold weather. 

"I couldn't sleep. Wanna game?"

"But you have school tomorrow. Lucifer would kill m-" Atlas shot him an unimpressed look and Levi. "Well, I guess I can't tell you that huh... Okay, fine. I guess I can let a normie play with me for a night." He stepped aside to let him enter.

"Why do you have to put it _like that?_ " He walked inside the room, while the otaku's face flushed red from embarassment. He coughed, and followed after Atlas, meanwhile Atlas made himself comfortable on his beanbag. He took off his jacket and threw his head back slowly, exhaling deeply in the process.

"...My head is spinning." He held his head, rubbing his temples. He bad barely took a few steps inside the room before he safely put himself on the beanbag anyway, every sensation he felt, saw, and tasted felt weird inside his brain and only added to his headache. The wet sensation inside his palms weren't because of sweat. It was water, plain water. Why the fuck did he have to think about that? No matter how much he wiped his hands on his jacket, it still felt wet. Leviathan sat next to him, in his previous place, and looked at him with semi-worried eyes.

"I have some sugar and water, and some of the ayran your mom made... Would that help?"

"One glass of ayran please, mister waiter..." He joked, pushing his hair out of his face. "Jokes aside, why do you have that?"

"I said I liked the taste of it, and she made some for me. I'll get it in a second." He crawled to the small fridge next to his computer, and pulled out a small plastic container. There was at least two liters of the salty and refreshing drink there. "Salty yougurt goes best when you make that." Atlas commented, thanking him after Levi put some inside a mysterious mug he got out of nowhere. 

"Hehe, your mom said the same thing." He smiled a little through his bangs.

"She did?"

"Yeah. You both like salty food and drinks."

"...We do." Atlas smiled back, genuinely this time. "We are similar."

"Not just in taste for food." The demon said, and turned off his controller. He suddenly wasn't in the mood to play any games. For some reason, talking with this normie was more interesting than playing Detroit:Become Human for the 4th time. He turned off the screen soon after, and let the blue light that came from his aquarium fill the room. He moved onto his comfortable bathtub and transformed into his demon form, swooshing his tail around lazily. Atlas watched him the entire time, and realized how toned down the demon became in eight years.

When they first met, Leviathan was an annoying shut-in. He rarely went out, he had a horrible case of social anxiety, and he hated anything that was "better" than him. He saw himself above everyone else, yet he was the one to insult himself at the end of the day and get worked up over other people's success. He learned how to control himself in the recent years, which surprised everyone. He rarely lost his cool nowadays, and he even dressed up willingly for special occasions time to time. 

The first time he asked Asmodeus how to apply make-up properly happened during dinner. And he was present as well. Even though he was a cosplayer, he was horrible at normal, everyday make-up. He had no idea which tones suited him, what undertone he had, what a cut-crease meant, et cetera. Lucifer began coughing on his food, his mother dropped her bite on the floor. To which their dog Charlie, and their cat (who came there with Atlas) Mısır, feasted upon right away. Beelzebub stopped eating, Belphegor snapped out of his sleepy daze, Mammon stopped rambling about ho much money he won from the casino, and accidentally dropped his spoon with a huge clank on his plate. 

The only one who remained uneffected was Atlas, who simply continued to eat his food. Asmodeus on the other hand, was thrilled to help him out, and didn't stop clinging to him whenever he found the oppoturnity. "Aww, my big brother finally grew up! You're gonna be so cute!", he said, which made Levi regret asking for help from him in the first place.

In short, Levi was slowly becoming a different man. He even staterd to study programing in a university online.

"...You look sad. Did someone say something to you at RAD?"

"Nah, more like... I had a weird dream. That's all. Are you gonna sleep?"

"I'm going to hang around with my phone." He said, holding his phone up with his tail. "I'm not sleepy."

"Must be nice having a fifth limp like that. Hmm..." Atlas took a big sip out of the savory drink, and closed his eyes at the taste, as Levi shrugged. Atlas spoke to himself after swallowing it. "...I love my mother's ayran. It tastes so good, the store-bought ones don't even compare to it."

"Right? This one tasted a lot better." 

"Yeah... But, for some reason, whenever I drink it, my throat gets all tangled up. Like... Like I want to cry. I don't know why. My mom..." He felt around the smooth mug in his hands, it was made out if porcelain.

"...never came to my school presentations, the events, the parent-teacher conferences... I don't wanna say she was negligent, she always fed me, gave me warm clothes, and slept with me when I had nightmares. Yesterday was the first time I've eaten something from her cooking that made me full."

"It was her turn to cook yesterday."

"Yeah... It tasted so delicious. My stomach finally stopped grumbling in the middle of the night and I slept happily, until I had that weird dream a couple hours ago. She acted like I was an kinda independent teen most of the time. And I suffered a lot. She hugged me properly for the first time after years. But... But I think I know why she was so distant. It's because I tried to drown Nekir when he was a baby."

"...I know. I was the one that caught you trying to do that, and took him away from you."

"You did?"

"Yeah." He nodded, unfazed. As if this was something completely normal. "You seemed so hazy, like you weren't aware of what was happening. We thought you were possessed at first, but you were fine." He looked back at him, slowly lowering his tail and putting his phone on his stomach. "We tried not to bring it up and make you remember that, but your mom was really impacted by that. She never thought you would do something like that, you were putting bobby pins on his hair and pinching his cheeks earlier that day." 

"Yet, I tried to kill him..." Atlas stared at his hands again, and took his head in his hands, rising up on the bean bag and hunching. "I... I almost became the murderer of... _my own sibling._. I almost killed my little brother. A defenseless baby. Haven't I?"

The tip of Leviathan's tail vibrated for a second after that, and he stood stunned for a few seconds. It caught Atlas' attention, and he turned his eyes towards him slightly. They were tired, scared, remorseful. It was like he carried the entire weight of the sky itself on his shoulders, hunching down by the sheer weight of it. What Leviathan saw at that moment wasn't a teenager that lived his life in a normal, or a slightly adventurous way. He saw a neglected child, and a broken adult in those eyes at the same time. 

"...That was the first time you called him your brother... Wait, have you-"

"Changed my mind about him? Yeah." Atlas said, almost giving the poor man a heart attack. He didn't miss the way Levi's face beamed brightly, too bad he was going to crush it a little. "Kind of." He added. "I still have a lot of explaining and talking to do. But... How? How can I face them after... I followed Lucifer's footsteps while he held my hand when I was little, Levi. I was the one that bought Nekir's first pastel colours set. I was the first one to take him to the playground in the human realm, he tried to brush my hair when I struggled with it, he asked me if it hurt,and kissed hand when I scraped it. Lucifer... Lucifer made my mom happy. They had a kid together, and my mom healed from _me_ , and my _dad_. Her disappointment and fear. And I tried to take that away from her, to make her love me more. I was selfish... And now, I'm even angrier."

"...It's true you look a lot like your dad. Your mother might be afraid that you are going to end up like him, or she remembers him whenever he looks at you... I think." He ran a habd through his bangs, and scratched his horns. His face fell all of a sudden. "I... don't blame you. For feeling so neglected that you start to envy your own brother, to the point of attempting to harm him. I know what that feels like. Your father... What a shame..."

"Huh?"

"Hm?"

"Why is it a shame?"

"Huh? W-Well, he is a soldier you know. He works in dangerous areas. And your mom suffered a lot because of him.." He cleared his throat, and Atlas frowned. First, it was Lucifer. Then, it was Levi. Just what was happening?

"...You tried to harm someone before?" He said, and changed the subject on purpose. He could always ask about it later. 

Leviathan nodded. "I have. A lot of people, actually. And succeeded in most of them... That was the old me you know. I was a pathetic vermin, and always found the fault in others. I'm supposed to be the Avatar of Envy, not the Avatar of Immaturity. I had to grow up soon or later, and your mom helped me a lot in that way... Well, I still feel envious of many things and tempt people, but I'm doing a bette job at controlling myself nowadays... Hehe..."

Atlas quietly listened to the tick-tocking of the clock inside the room, as seconds pass. He lays back on the beanbag again and puts his wrist over his eyes, smiling slightly while peeking at the demon. "...Thine morals hath grown a lot ever since we defeated the prosperous thoughts that hath invade our heads, Lord of Shadows." He said, not caring if what he said was grammatically correct in the firsr place.

"I shall have the honor of saying that to you, Henry, my loyal and wondrous companion." Levi responded, giving his signature chuckle. 

"Alright! Enough of this emotional nonsense, we'll have a raid tonight!"

"Wait, what, I thought we were gonna sleep-"

"Have I? I guess. But no, we need to _calm you down first. You're freaking out."_ His voice changed, sounding both thin and thick at the same time. His vision began go distort, as if it was blurring. Dark spots appeared, spreading and going away, only to re-appear "What do you mean!?" Atlas yelled, now alarmed. He got up. 

_"Atlas, can you hear me?"_ Leviathan's face shifted, a grey hue covering everywhere, including him. His face was invisible, there was nothing there. Just skin. He got closer, and closer. The skin faced creature walked towards him, pinning him on a wall. His enviornment changed as well, he was in the bathroom where everything happened all of a sudden. 

The creature had grown diamonds instead of eyes, pulsating, and bloody. It'a teeth extended out from the theeth inside of the skin, intead of gums. There were weirs gurgling sounds coming friom it's mouth and throat. Atlas had found a weirdly shaped gun on the floor next to him then, by pure luck. He took it, and aimed it towards the creature.

His hands shook, a mixture of saliva and sweat ran down his chin. His tears and nose were running, his hair was damp with sweat. The tile felt cold agganist his back and hands.

The ceature said something, but Atlas didn't hear it. Or rather, he didn't understand it. He raised the gun once again, trying to keep his arms from shaking. The only thing he could hear was his own pleas of being left alone, or yelling at the creature. 

"Ah, hah, hah, no, no, NO NO NO NO NO NO! GO AWAAAY Go AWAY, I TOLD YOU TO GO AWAY!" He screamed, and tried to fire the gun. 

Only to hear a clicking sound.

The thing was completely empty. 

The creature, or the creatures, as Atlas counted in panic, all looked at him and tried to talk. He felt a warm, burning liquid running down his pants, soaking them and spilling on the floor. He urinated himself out of fear, pure fear. He dropped the gun and tried to move back further, but the wa allow him. The creature launched at him at last, and he screamed for the kast time before it wrapped his arms around him.

...

The creature's smell was familiar.

"Atlas, Atlas!" His blocked off ears cleared in an instant, and he instantly looked up. He met with two small, red eyes.

"It's me!"

**Author's Note:**

> Some context for the OC's.
> 
> Atlas Elveren:  
> -Nicknames; ---  
> -Human  
> -Turkish  
> -Has light skin, brown eyes, fluffy and slightly long black hair.   
> \- Usually wears his highschool uniform (not RAD), which is described in the first chapter. Doesn't have a specific taste in clothing, as long as it's comfortable.  
> -Past complex.  
> \- Pretty tall for his age, around 1.75-1.77 m  
> -Probably has a reddit account  
> -Father complex  
> -Either a genius or a fucking idiot
> 
> His brother, Nekir;  
> -Nicknames: Münker, Azazil, Samael, (It's said that Azazil is the previous name of Şeytan in Quran, kind of the equivelent of Lucifer in Islam. Münker is explained. And we all know who Samael is.)  
> -Half-Demon  
> -Half Turkish  
> -Slightly tanned skin, red-ish eyes, black and light curly hair.  
> -Happy boy  
> -We'll see how his personality is like in the future.  
> -1.52-1.55 m  
> -Usually wears classy clothing, thanks to Lucifer.  
> -Trouble maker  
> -Either loves his brother or is planning a muder scheme for him on the inside.
> 
> The Mom, Turna;  
> -A sweetheart, but doesn't really give a shit about his oldest son because I didn't include many scenes between them in the last fic and I don't want to do that now.  
> -T a l l   
> -EmpoweredTM  
> -Curly dark hair, white skin.   
> -Cheerful, married to Lucifer  
> -Previously failed marrige, Atlas as from that one.  
> -Married to Luci cause why not  
> -Typical mom


End file.
